Is the "Never Say Die" thing right?

[matt0044]

On thing that I noticed (with few exceptions) is that Anime shown to kids in America tend to not use the words "die," "dead," "death" and "kill" and it's usually implied (Nicktoons DBZ Kai) or removed entirely (4kids). Either they don't want kids making death threats to others or they don't want to scare them with something that a part of real life and bulls**t them. Other cartoons do this, of course, to a ridiculous extend.

There are some shows that go against this such as The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy where Death itself (Grim) was a main character on the series. Hell, even Hell was shown (though called the "Underworld" and not actually "Hell"). But if that show can have the word "Death" said, why can't and couldn't other cartoons that are meant for older kids (around ten and up) do the same?

It seems ridiculous too when they imply death but don't say the word like it's a curse since it's like the kids know what death is but they can't say the words that are related to it. I know that death threads aren't appropriate, even if you don't mean it but if that's the case, parents should tell their kids not to make such threats instead of treating the words like curses.

What do you think? Is this whole "Never Say Die" thing really necessary? Death is part of life (the end, actually) and you can deny your kids from knowing about it or saying about. Who knows? They're grandparents could kick the bucket anytime and they wouldn't know how to handle it. Or even there pets.

 

[Skitty-chan]

Adding death usually makes a show too heavy (Occasionally so, even for adults). The question is, do you really want kids to have to deal with such a real and emotional problem? Kids know about death no matter what, but does that make it okay to add it to their daily television?

It honestly comes down to what you think is appropriate for kids. I know as a child I was grief stricken for days about the vast majority of implied deaths, so...

It's truly is a matter of opinion. I think that it shouldn't be treated as a curse word, but death itself should not just be thrown around willy-nilly into kids shows.

Just my two cents.

P.S. Saw the title and Never Say Die - Television Tropes & Idioms (WOOO TV TROPES!!!)

 

[Lord Aizen]

Let me tell you a little story.

When i was five, i knew about death, and considered it a part of life.
My sister was the same, so was my friends.


To be honest, trying to protect the children from knowing about death and the use of death is pure baka to me.
Really people, it's pointless to protect children from such silly things. most of them know far worse things already.

 

[Gato]

Not really, but it kind of depends. Naturally, I don't really think death should exactly be a major part of... just kids' shows in general. It's really not necessary for the vast, vast majority of their plots, and unless it's meant to be sad (which most kids' shows, to say the least, aren't), it really isn't necessary.

Still, even with that said, I think there's way too much stigma surrounding death. It's a part of life. Many, if not most, kids experience death to some extent at a young age, needless to say in the years of older childhood. Even if they haven't, it's not like they don't know what it is, and that it happens. At the smae time, especially if they had experienced it, it could prove to be quite depressing, but that goes for everyone.

In a nutshell, no, I wouldn't say I agree with it. Death really shouldn't be a major focus at all, as it is rather depressing, but if the character dies, there's really no need to go to tremendous lengths to dance around it, and it really isn't an unspeakable word.

 

[matt0044]

It's truly is a matter of opinion. I think that it shouldn't be treated as a curse word, but death itself should not just be thrown around willy-nilly into kids shows.

Of course not, but all the same, it shouldn't be covered up as if it doesn't exist at all. I mean, 4kids did this with the Shadow Realm on Yu Gi Oh and such. I'm not saying death should be shown all the time to kids but that it shouldn't be covered up. Of course, great films for kids (or rather all ages) like from Disney have death in them.

 

[Ghetsis-Dennis]

We wouldn't want death to be all over the place for a light show don't we?

 

[matt0044]

We wouldn't want death to be all over the place for a light show don't we?

No. To be honest, I wasn't talking about death occurring but death not being mentioned as if it's a curse word or something. Check TV Tropes for this term.

 

[Skitty-chan]

Of course not, but all the same, it shouldn't be covered up as if it doesn't exist at all. I mean, 4kids did this with the Shadow Realm on Yu Gi Oh and such. I'm not saying death should be shown all the time to kids but that it shouldn't be covered up. Of course, great films for kids (or rather all ages) like from Disney have death in them.

Oh, okay, cool.

We have the same opinion then.

Ghetsis-Dennis: the link for the trope is here. (TV TROPES IS THE BEST! )

 

[Usagi-Zakura]

I find it curious how an American cartoon (Grim Adventures) can get away with it and yet translated anime can't...
Its as with guns, 4Kids remove guns from everything and replace it with increasingly ridiculous things like fingers and...whatever this is:

And then there's Looney Toons where guns are used all the time to make people's face sooty...

Can someone explain to me this; If sometime in the future you have a child would you like them to learn that guns are dangerous and KILLS people? or that guns make your face sooty and various other humorous things?

American TV is pretty hypocritical in that way<.<

 

[Gligar13]

[video=youtube;Qh2sWSVRrmo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2sWSVRrmo[/video]

Welcome to America. If you see a death reference, it will either:
1. Ruin them forever.
2. Turn them into psychos.

 

[Force Fire]

Because Death is much worse than exposing sexual material to children.

I actually don't have a problem with this sort of censoring. I'd imagine that they wouldn't want kids to get nightmares.

 

[matt0044]

I find it curious how an American cartoon (Grim Adventures) can get away with it and yet translated anime can't...
Its as with guns, 4Kids remove guns from everything and replace it with increasingly ridiculous things like fingers and...whatever this is:

And then there's Looney Toons where guns are used all the time to make people's face sooty...

Can someone explain to me this; If sometime in the future you have a child would you like them to learn that guns are dangerous and KILLS people? or that guns make your face sooty and various other humorous things?

American TV is pretty hypocritical in that way<.<

THIS! ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!

Because Death is much worse than exposing sexual material to children.

I actually don't have a problem with this sort of censoring. I'd imagine that they wouldn't want kids to get nightmares.

Clearly, you never seen Disney's animated movies from back in the day like The Hunchback of Notredame. They contain death and are family films.

Sure, death is dreadful to think about but that's no reason to bullshit kids to make them think death is nonexistent. And it's one thing to make a series and not feature death but it's another to take a series like an Anime and censor death to the point where things make no sense. As a fan of said Anime, I tend to feel angered at such acts of awful censorship.

 

[Lupin Fiasco]

Welcome to America! where hypocrisy rules our great lands!

Here's why American cartoons can get way with violence & death yet foreign cartoons can't; No one in this damn country wants to admit it's the parents' faults for not raising their kids, they wanna blame tv, music, & video games, & if cartoons are by some chance the culprit, it sure as hell can't be because of American cartoons, oh no! our cartoons are tame compared to the EVULL of non American cartoons that caused our youth to kill.

in a nutshell.

 

[Citizen Snips]

As mentioned earlier, death is an extremely heavy concept to cope with, and the creators don't want the children to treat the subject like a game or cartoon. The Canadain dub of Dragon Ball Z has a character die every few episodes and treats it casually, which could possibly give the child a casual and desensitized outlook on the concept of death. Most of the media for children that dealt with death and guns(In the 90s and early 00s at least) were usually shows that had a very grim outlook on the subject, such as The Iron Giant, which showed you the horrific affects of guns and death.

My little cousins are an example of this, because they casually using the word 'dead,' when ever they lose a game (Video or imaginary) like it's nobodies business. There closest experience with death has been characters dying in video games, and seem to treat the subject like a game, even say 'I will kill you' when playing an imaginary game. Before someone says that this them pretending to be Darth Sidious or something, they do this when they pretend to be boxers, or wrestlers.

 

[matt0044]

Shouldn't the parents teach kids about death and maybe teach them the difference between reality and fiction so they don't become desensitized to anything? Oh wait, that'd actually make sense.